Last day and home sweet home!

Monday again and everyone a bit slow off the mark. Had to be packed, breakfasted and up to the bus pickup spot - to load up the bus at 7.30am (our program) with the bus arriving at 8.30am!!! We were dropped off at Martin Place directly across the road from Channel 7 who were recoding The Morning Show (Sunrise) live!! In one fell swoop we crossed the road to gather, as a crowd was forming to see a car being given away in some competition, while we watched. We ended up on LIVE NATIONAL TV!!!!!!!!! Apparrently it is quite common for the "stars' of the show to come out and mingle with the crowd at the end of each show which you can see being taped through the windows in the building and today was such a day. They came out armed with screeds of promo photos and were happy to sign them as well. In between taping the car segment, we got asked where we came from and then in the following segment got a mention. The WMH got rung and woken up ( 2 hours behind Sydney) and told to immediately tape the program on TV (which he did) and we have several quick shots of students and one of the staff being an idiot behind the guy who won the car (as you do). I recognised a few of the "stars" and got autographs from Mel, Beretta, Koshe and then a separate photo and signature from James Tobin *small squeal* (also from Dancing with the Stars). Half of them mean nothing to me (except James who seems a lovely boy) but now know who is who as many of these folk appear on other programs or news segments during the week as well. Lots of the group got photos with the stars and I have some video of the event which was a highlight for the students and an unexpected bonus indeed.

This helped to cope with the next tour,, to the Reserve Bank Building where we had a presentation re Australian currency notes at the Museum of Currency Notes within the building. The presenter was as dry as you can imagine and most of the information went way over our heads but there were some interesting bits. I also remembered what the Commonwealth Science & Industrial Research Organisation were famous for - creating polymer which is what the Aussi notes are made of and which they sold to NZ for our notes in the 90's (along with 21 other countries to date). (CSIRO also invented disposable contact lenses amongst other things). We saw designs of notes that never made it to printing and notes that were used in days gone by and got told how they picked the designs that finally made todays notes.

Had some down time after that so found a coffee shop while the girls looked about. Walked up Castlerealgh (sp?) street with all the flash shops - Tiffany's, Jimmy Choo, Gucci, Louis Vuitton etc and dribbled as we went past their windows. Got picked up by the bus again and dropped of to Circular Quay for lunch and our last trip which was a 'Harbour Highlights Cruise on the Captain Cook ferry. Had a good two hours on the tide and went up to Darling Harbour as well including going past Kirribilli - the PM's residence and the Governor General's residence next door, and homes of the rich and famous at various spots around the harbour.

We still had a bit of time up our sleeves so went for a walk through "The Rocks" for the girls to do some last minute shopping. Found this little shop that made old fashioned boiled lollies while you watched. They started making a kind of toffee and then threw it over and over a hook to turn it white. It then got cut into rectangles and had blue stripes of toffee interspersed with more white oblongs and then it got put through this machine which cut them into small boiled lollies - very impressive and we all got to try one. We had to cut the visit there short as we were due back at the bus to finally head to the airport.

Flew back here Virgin Blue so no movies etc or anything unless you paid for it. I got into the seat, put my seat belt on and promptly fell asleep - have no memory of take off at all. Woke up with about two hours left to fly so read and dozed for the rest of the flight. Landed about 9.30pm WA time and then waited (in Dome as previously mentioned) until 11.30pm until the WM arrived on the boys' flight, with the PE teacher who was driving us back to school. OMG what a long trip!!!! We got petrol just out of Perth and McD's to keep us going and off we set in the pouring rain. We took turns to drive - I managed about 40k from Carnarvon to Three Springs but really none of us should have been on the road. Kept awake mostly from Three Springs to just before our turnoff to help keep the PE teacher awake.

Needless to say, I walked through the door, dropped my bags, dropped my clothes, threw on some night attire and hit the pillows and then slept for 12 hours. The WM rang me and sent hubby down to pick me up for dinner and after All Saints, went back and went to bed only getting up yesterday to hang some washing out and finally at 2.30pm to get ready to go to work again. Here endeth the trip.